Page 58 - Chinese and japanese porcelain silk and lacquer Canepa

the History of the Ming Dynasty (Ming shi) indicate who was also heiress to the Crown of Aragón. As both the Queen of Portugal and
that complex luo gauze, a type of mid-weight silk the youngest sister of Emperor Charles V (r. 1519–1556), Catherine led a privileged
fabric woven with crossing ends, was used to make
ceremonial costumes and ordinary clothing of the life. As will be shown in the following Chapters, Catherine acquired quantities of
emperor and empresses, the court dress of the
prince, and the audience uniforms of the bulwark- luxury goods from Asia for the decoration of the Lisbon royal palace as well as for her
commandant of the state, the seventh highest of personal use, which served as emblems of her power. Her collection became the first
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eight ranks of imperial nobility. Sha gauze, a type
of thin silk woven fabric in which one set of crossing kunstkammer on the Iberian Peninsula.
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(doup) ends and one set of fixed ends are crossed
the same way after each shuttle movement. The From the documents discussed thus far it is possible to conclude that relatively
little holes of this type of gauze make it lightweight large quantities of raw silk and various woven silk cloths began to reach Lisbon in
and breathable, thus appropriate for hot and
humid weather. For a discussion on these gauzes the early years of direct Portuguese trade relations with China, even when trade was
and their various decorative techniques, as well as
images of surviving Ming examples, see Kuhn, 2012, prohibited from 1522 to 1554. These imported silks appear to have been much
pp. 387–393, figs. 8.23–8.35, and pp. 526–527.
appreciated by the royal courts of Manuel I, and his successor, John III. One can
25 Silk satin (duan) is a fabric with a lustrous surface,
a smooth appearance, and a soft feel. During the also observe that despite the royal monopoly of trade in silk imposed in 1520, some
Ming dynasty there were four main varieties of Portuguese private individuals were trading not only woven silk cloths, but also
satin: monochrome patterned satin damask (anhua
duan), satin woven with gold (zhijin duan), plain finished silk products, such as silk stockings.
satin (suduan), and brocaded satin (zhuanghua
duan). From the fourteenth century onwards, the
most common silk satin was a monochrome five-end Evidence of silk in Portugal after the settlement of Macao in 1557
damask weave (wumei duan) consisting of a five-end
warp satin ground and a five-pick weft satin pattern. After settling in Macao in 1557, the Portuguese merchants gained regular access to the
For a discussion on Ming satin weaves and surviving
examples, see Kuhn, 2012, pp. 375–384, figs. 8.4–8.17. bi-annual fair of Canton. This enabled them to establish a direct triangular trade route
26 Twill damask (ling) is a silk fabric formed by a warp- of relatively short distances between Canton, Macao and Japan. Raw silk, together
faced and a weft-faced binding. By the Ming dynasty,
figured ling damask was produced as a fine, lustrous, with Japanese and New World silver, became the main commodity traded by the
sleek fabric with a twill pattern on a twill ground, Portuguese in Macao. At this point it is important to note that, as discussed in Chapter
which used untwisted raw silk for both warp and weft.
After weaving, the damask fabric was processed I, the vast majority of silk traded by the Portuguese was not destined to Europe. It
and dyed. The finest types of figured ling damask
were used for embroidery and for underwear. For was used for their inter-Asian trade, distributed mainly to India, Japan (by both
a discussion on Ming twill damasks and a surviving Portuguese merchants and Jesuits until 1639) and Manila (after 1571) in exchange for
example, see Kuhn, 2012, p. 402, fig. 8.43, and
pp. 524–525. silver and gold.
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27 A fine, plain silk fabric formed by interweaving a warp The Portuguese used the Macao-Malacca/Goa-Lisbon trade route to supply silk
and a weft yarn in a simple way. Taffeta fabrics are
usually shiny. Scott, 1993, p. 241, and other Asian luxury goods to India, Portugal and the rest of Europe. In the period
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28 Anselmo Braamcamp Freire, ‘Inventário da casa de 1581 to 1586, the years following the union of Spain and Portugal, the Crown allowed
D. João III em 1534’, Archivo histórico portuguez, vol.
8, Lisbon, 1910, pp. 276–277. Mentioned in Ferreira, freedom of trade, but continued to reserve for itself the profitable trade in pepper,
2013, p. 48.
silk and cinnamon. In late Ming China, meanwhile, silk production began to shift
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29 According to Guimarães Sá any account book or
inventory of members of the royal family dating to the after 1581 from rural areas to suburban villages in the Lower Yangtze. Taxes in kind
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fifteenth century documents that there were several
tailors dedicated to make liturgical vestments, such as were abolished that year, which meant that the state no longer provided any direct
altar fronts, chasubles, dalmatics, altarpiece curtains, demand for silk tabbies even in traditional silk weaving regions. A small amount of
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and coffin covers, as well as others that made clothes
for profane use, including bed attire, canopies, silk tabbies continued to be produced in Zhili and Jiangxi for sale in central markets,
hanging cloths, or horse and mule dressings. Isabel
dos Guimarães Sá, ‘Dressed to impress; clothing, such as Hangzhou; as well as in Sichuan, Guangdong and Fujian, but these latter
jewels and weapons in court rituals in Portugal (1450– regions mostly exported raw silk to the Lower Yangzi.
1650)’, paper presented at the Conference Clothing
and the Culture of Appearances in Early Modern Textual sources contain valuable data to identify the various types and prices
Europe. Research perspectives, Madrid, Fundación
Carlos Amberes, Museo del Traje, 3–4 February 2012, of silks purchased at Canton, and estimate the volumes shipped to Goa. Among the
p. 7.
earliest is the three-volume book Itinerário of 1596 written by the Dutch merchant
30 Covado is a measure used in Portugal that was
equivalent to ¾ of a yard, or a Flemish ell. Annemarie and explorer Jan Huygen van Linschoten (1563–1611), who observes that ‘only from
Jordan, The Development of Catherine of Austria’s the town of Canton there is yearly carried into India above three thousand quintals of
collection in the Queen’s household: its character
and cost, unpublished doctoral dissertation, Brown silk, which are sold by weight, besides the silks that are yearly carried to the Islands of
University, Providence, 1994, p. 435.
Japan, Luzon, of Philippines, and to the land of Sian…’. The Florentine merchant
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31 Archivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo (Hereafter cited
as ANTT), Lisbon, Núcleo Antigo, no. 790, ‘Catalina and traveller Francesco Carletti (1573–1636) in the account of his travels around the
Fig. 2.1.1.1 Kesi slit tapestry weaving de Austria, Inventario de joyas y guardarropa, 15 de
Silk and metallic thread Mayo de 1528’, fol. 93v. Mentioned in Jordan, 1994, world which began that same year, notes that the merchandise acquired twice a year at
China, Ming dynasty p. 384; Annemarie Jordan, ‘Catherine of Austria: A the Canton fair to be taken to India in the months of April and May was ‘chiefly raw
Portuguese Queen in the Shadow of the Habsburg
Dimensions: 224.2cm x 180.3cm Court?’, Portuguese Studies Review, Vol. 13, Nos. silk, of which they transport on each voyage 70,000 to 80,000 pounds of twenty ounces
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 1 and 2, Fall-Winter 2005 (Publ. 2007), p. 184; and
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Seymour Fund, 1960 (acc. no. 60.1) Pacheco Ferreira, 2013, p. 48. A full transcription to the pound, which they call catti. They also carry quantities of diverse cloths…’.

56 Trade in Chinese Silk 57